"Great King, the last general failed to achieve victory, please punish the king!" After returning to his own military formation, Zhang Lang said with a face full of shame.

"You have done a good job, all the soldiers fought bravely, and although they failed to achieve victory, they also inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy; Moreover, it is too condescending for you to be able to remain calm and calm when you are in a critical situation, and to be a deputy commander. Yang Wu said: "From today on, you will be the commander." ”

"Thank you, the king!" Zhang Lang originally thought that he would be punished for losing the battle, but he didn't expect that Yang Wu not only did not punish him, but rewarded him, and he was naturally overjoyed.

In fact, in Yang Wu's view, the people under Shi Jingjiao's command are all the elites of the Jin army; And Zhang Lang's subordinates were just ordinary forbidden troops, but in the end, the Jin army had a slight upper hand, which was enough to make Yang Wu's eyes light up.

If all the officers and men of the Wu army can have such a performance, with the strength advantage of the Wu army far exceeding the Jin army, it is more likely to win this battle.

"Great King, our army was at a disadvantage in the first battle just now, but the minister thought that the main reason for this was that the main reason for this was that the troops invested were not enough, so that the Jin army, which had more advantages in personal martial arts, could give full play to their strengths, while the advantages brought by our army's strict formation could not be fully utilized. Therefore, the minister thought that he should increase his troops and challenge the Jin army again. At this time, Li Chengding proposed.

On the side, Zhou Ben nodded in agreement: "That's true, and if only a thousand people are invested in each battle, how long will it take to achieve the final victory?" What's more, the total strength of our army was originally more than that of the Jin army, and only by investing more troops in each battle can we give full play to our army's strength advantage. ”

Yang Wu nodded: "Okay, then this time we will throw three thousand troops to challenge the enemy." Which general would want to lead his troops into battle? ”

"The last will go!"

"The last general asks for the king's life!"

As soon as Yang Wu's words fell, many generals stood up, and these people had just seen Zhang Lang become deserving and promoted, so of course they wanted to show off at this time.

This time, 3,000 troops are ready to be invested, so the rank of the commander is at least the commander.

Yang Wu looked at the many generals who took the initiative to stand up, and finally his eyes fell on a commander named Lin Xun and ordered him to lead the troops into battle.

……

As the losing side, Yang Wu was satisfied with the battle situation; On the other side of the battlefield, Li Cunmiao, the king of Jin, was not very satisfied with the outcome of this battle.

In Li Cunqing's view, the 1,000 troops led by Shi Jingjiao were already a rare elite in the Jin army, not much worse than the personal guards under his command, and their performance on the battlefield did not lose their due level; In the end, however, the results were only marginally superior.

"Could it be that the Wu army is really so strong, and if you send an army to fight with the elite of our army, you can achieve a slight advantage? If this is the case, with the Wu army having much more troops than our army, wouldn't our army be defeated in this battle? Li Cunmiao found it difficult to accept this result.

On the other side, Shi Jingjiao, whose face had not yet dried the bloodstains, also said with an unwilling face: "King, the last general failed to defeat the enemy army, but this is because the last general is led by infantry, if the last general is led by cavalry, then this battle will have killed the enemy army a long time ago." ”

Hearing him mention the cavalry, Li Cunmiao's heart moved: "Yes, I was confused just now, the Wu army has lived in the south for a long time, and it is originally known for its infantry, but the advantage of our army is cavalry." Now our army is facing the enemy infantry head-on with infantry, and although we have not been able to defeat it, we have also achieved victory. If the cavalry had been sent alone, the battle situation would not have been like this. ”

Thinking like this, the worry that had just risen in Li Cunmiao's heart suddenly relaxed.

At this time, there was another war drum in the Wu army formation on the opposite side, and an army of 3,000 people formed a small formation with 500 people as a small formation, forming a total of six small formations, arranged in two rows in front and back, and each row was three small formations.

This is a decent formation, which has no characteristics except for being safe, but it still has a bit of momentum after the Wu army comes out, with both a wide front and no lack of depth, which is most suitable for this kind of frontal battle.

"My lord, the enemy army is challenging again, and the minister is willing to lead the troops to attack again; This time, the minister will bring cavalry, and he will definitely crush the enemy! Shi Jingjiao immediately stood up and asked.

"General Shi has just fought a battle, he should rest for a day or two, and the last general is willing to lead his troops into battle." Other generals also stepped forward to plead.

Whether it was the Wu army or the Jin army, the morale at this time was very high, and the generals had a very strong desire to fight, and they were not affected by the tragic battle just now.

Although Shi Jingjiao was bent on fighting, and Li Cunqiao also wanted to see if he could lead the cavalry to fight and see if he could achieve victory; However, at this time, the other generals were seeking war, and Li Cunmiao was not biased, and finally ordered his henchman Zhu Shouyin to fight.

This time, the Wu army dispatched 3,000 people, all of whom were infantry, while the Jin army only invested 1,500 people, but 500 of them were cavalry, and they were the most elite cavalry under the command of Li Cunqing, the king of Jin.

Although one side has a large number of troops, it is dominated by infantry; The other side had fewer troops, but there were five hundred cavalry among them, and it was difficult to say which side had the upper hand in military strength.

"Although the enemy army has more troops, our army has cavalry; Moreover, when our army fought against the Liang army, it was usually at a disadvantage in strength and relied on cavalry to achieve victory; So it doesn't matter if the troops are at a disadvantage, what matters is how the troops are used. Li Cunqiao thought in his heart.

This time, the two sides invested more troops, which was enough to put on a good posture and fight a good battle.

After the battle began, the Jin army stabilized its position with 1,000 infantry and used 500 cavalry as a weapon to break the formation, constantly testing the flaws of the Wu army, looking for an opportunity to break the enemy with one blow; The Wu army, on the other hand, fought steadily and steadily, exerting the power of the infantry phalanx to the extreme, and the various small formations cooperated closely with each other.

In front of this kind of well-formed infantry phalanx, even the brave and good Jin cavalry could not get benefits, coupled with the huge advantage of the Wu army in terms of troops, so the Wu army had the upper hand on the battlefield this time.

Of course, the cavalry of the Jin army is indeed very powerful, but the Wu army has no cavalry, which makes the advantages of the Wu army unable to be fully exerted, but in the process of using troops, they are a little constrained and miss a lot of fighters.

Looking at the changes in the situation on the battlefield in the distance, Yang Wu said thoughtfully: "It seems that pure infantry combat is still not enough, without cavalry to protect the flanks, the army will inevitably be disturbed when it moves, and it will not be able to attack the enemy with all its might." Perhaps this was how Liang Jun felt when he faced our army. ”

At this time, Yang Wu also understood why the Liang army was repeatedly defeated against the Jin army, and the lack of cavalry was its fatal problem.

Fortunately, although the cavalry of the Wu army was weaker than that of the Jin army, it was not like the Liang army, which had almost no cavalry.

After more than ten years of construction, today's Wu cavalry is no longer the cavalry that could only be used to bully the southern feudal towns, but a powerful cavalry with more than 10,000 people and has undergone rigorous training and actual combat tests.

There is not much difference in cavalry, coupled with the huge advantage of infantry strength, as long as it is used properly, it is sure to achieve victory.

At this time, thousands of soldiers on the battlefield fought together, filling the open space in front of the two armies, and the eyes were full of swords and spears, reflecting the cold light reflected in the sunlight.

This kind of battle involving thousands of people takes much longer than before, and it is usually impossible to decide the winner for an hour or two.

However, in the middle of the battle, before the winner was decided, there was a sudden sound of Mingjin withdrawing troops from the opposite Jin army, which surprised both sides of the battlefield.

"King, what's wrong with Jin Jun? Why did you choose to collect troops at this time? Could it be that there is some conspiracy that does not work? Li Chengding said with some surprise.

Yang Wu frowned, but did not answer.

Guo Chongtao said on the side: "There should be something unexpected, right?" King, should we take advantage of the situation to attack? ”

Li Chengding also said: "King, the enemy's sudden withdrawal without warning is not only surprising to our army, but also the enemy army should not have expected it. You see those enemy soldiers, their faces are a little panicked at this time, take this opportunity to attack, you should be able to achieve a victory. ”

Before Yang Wu could answer, Yan Keqiu retorted: "King, although the minister does not understand the art of war, but the minister thinks that the Jin army has been on the battlefield for a long time, and a scene like this must have been encountered, even if the soldiers of the Jin army are a little surprised, they will not give us an opportunity to take advantage of it, and rashly pursue, I am afraid that it will be easy to ambush." Therefore, the minister thought that it was enough to collect the troops, and there was no need to pursue. ”

Yang Wu turned his head to look at Zhou Ben: "What does General Zhou think?" ”

"The old minister thinks that at this time, it should be safe." Zhou Ben hesitated for a moment, and finally advocated being serious.

As Yan Keqiu said, although the Jin army retreated at this time, the reason was not clear, and the enemy army was fighting under the city, and the Wu army was not prepared, so it was not beneficial to rashly pursue the enemy army.

Yang Wu nodded and ordered: "Order, collect the troops." But in his heart, he was thinking about what happened in the Jin army, so that Li Cunqiao ordered the troops to be withdrawn regardless of the victory or defeat on the battlefield.

"Could it be that there is something big wrong within the Jin Kingdom? Or does Li Cunmiao think that if he continues to fight, he will lose, and he is worried that it will affect his morale? It can't be that Li Cunmiao suddenly fell ill, right? It was fine before. ”

He didn't know that there was indeed a major event in the Jin army, and it was an extremely beneficial thing to the Wu State, and it would even completely change the war situation between the Jin and Wu countries in the future, and completely push the Jin State into the abyss.

……

Time goes back a few days ago.

April 20, outside Zhenzhou.

When Yan Bao was the envoy, he led the army to build a wall outside the city to surround Zhenzhou, and led the water to surround Zhenzhou, completely isolating the inside and outside, and wanted to use the method of siege to eliminate Zhang Chujin.

However, because of negligence, the Jin army led by Yan Bao was raided by the Zhenzhou army and was defeated, not only losing the Jin army camp, but also losing a lot of money, grain, and baggage stored in the camp.

Zhenzhou was originally in a state of internal and external difficulties under the long-term siege of the Jin army, although a large amount of money, food and ordnance were stored before the war, but by this time it was almost consumed; Therefore, after breaking through the Jin army camp, Zhang Chujin immediately sent people to transport the materials captured in the camp back to the city.

However, because there were too many materials seized this time, they could not all be transported back to the city in a short period of time, so until Li Sizhao took over as the new envoy, there were still many materials that were not moved and were left in the old camp of the Jin army.

On this day, Zhang Chujin sent more than 1,000 soldiers to the outside of the city to carry the captured grain, and after Li Sizhao learned the news, he personally led his troops to set up an ambush in the old camp of the Jin army to block the soldiers who welcomed the grain.

The Zhenzhou army was defenseless and small, and was quickly routed, and the soldiers either surrendered or were slaughtered, leaving only the remaining five soldiers to hide among the ruins of the wall.

Li Sizhao was so brave that he didn't take these five soldiers in his eyes at all, so he personally rode around the five soldiers and shot them with arrows.

Of course, these five Zhenzhou soldiers will not only be beaten but not fight back, they will also shoot arrows and fight back.

What people didn't expect was that they didn't know which soldier shot the arrow that hit Li Sizhao's brain, although Li Sizhao was wearing a helmet at the time, but he was still bleeding all over the ground.

At this time, the arrows in his quiver had just run out, so he pulled the arrow from his head and continued to shoot, plus the attendants who saw that the situation was not good hurriedly stepped forward to besiege, and soon shot five Zhenzhou soldiers to death.

At this time, the sun was setting, and Li Sizhao returned to the barracks, bleeding from the place where he was shot in the head, and died in the camp that night.

Fortunately, Li Sizhao is a famous general of a generation after all, and even before he died, he made arrangements for the Jin army, and he left his last words to hand over all the military power to Ren Yuan, the judge of Zhaoyi Jiedu, and let him lead the army to continue to attack Zhenzhou.

And Ren Yuan inherited Li Sizhao's last order, and the order issued was exactly the same as before, and the people of Zhenzhou didn't even know that Li Sizhao had been shot to death.

This peerless general in the Jin army has experienced countless bloody battlefields, and when Jinyang was besieged by the Liang army twice, it was he who led the troops to fight day and night, which repelled the Liang army; When the Liang army counterattacked Luzhou, it was Li Sizhao who led his troops to hold on to Luzhou for more than a year, and finally won time for the victory of the Jin army; In the Battle of Huliupi, it was Li Sizhao who led the cavalry to launch a counterattack, thus turning the tide of the war; In this year's battle against the Khitan, Li Cunqiao took the lead, but was besieged by the Khitans, and it was Li Sizhao who led 300 cavalry to rush into the siege to rescue them, and defeated the Khitans in one fell swoop......

Such a famous general who has experienced a hundred battles, but finally died in the hands of five nobodies, which can really be called a capsized boat in the gutter.

When the news reached Yang Liu's side, it was when Zhu Shouyin and the Wu army were fighting fiercely, which was the reason why Li Cunqiao ordered Mingjin to withdraw his troops.